Arizona Cardinals pass-rusher Josh Sweat is having a career season, and he isn’t happy about the lack of a Pro Bowl selection for his efforts.
“I’m upset because there’s only two individual things that you can get and it’s Pro Bowl and All-Pro,” Sweat said Wednesday, per ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss. “And I got one taken away from me. I’m just flat out saying it was taken away from me—and it ain’t the first time.”
Sweat was named a Pro Bowl alternate, just like he was in 2021 when he was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. He ended up making the Pro Bowl for the 2021 campaign because of Nick Bosa’s injury, and he will need a similar situation to unfold to make this season’s game.
“It’s like I don’t know what else I could have done at that point,” Sweat said. “I don’t know what else I could have done. Now previous years, maybe you could have said he didn’t have the popularity, maybe he didn’t get the fan vote. This year, I was second in fan voting for NFC. It’s like, what else did they want me to do? The popularity was there. You could say losing team. It didn’t matter; I had the popularity.”
The pass-rusher has 11 sacks and four forced fumbles on the year. He leads the league in forced fumbles and is the only NFC player with a double-digit sack total who wasn’t named to the Pro Bowl.
Brian Burns (New York Giants), Byron Young (Los Angeles Rams) and Jared Verse (Rams) were the NFC outside linebackers who made the Pro Bowl.
The Rams are one of the best teams in the league with an opportunity to make the Super Bowl, which would mean Verse and Young would surely opt out of the Pro Bowl and create multiple spots for the alternatives.
That could clear the way for Sweat to make the game again as an alternate, even if he isn’t happy with the situation at this point.
Perhaps he will use it as motivation as Arizona closes the season and put up even better numbers that make his Pro Bowl snub look even worse in hindsight.